[I]n the months—sometimes years—leading to a coffee shop opening, café owners toil over endless planning and tough decisions. From the make and model of the espresso machine, to the roasting or import partner, to the types of alternative milks to stock, business owners are thinking about every detail.
Yet, when it comes to the to-go aspects of a café experience, decisions are often made by default. With only minor variation, the same disposable lids and cups are used in most cafés. We’ve partnered with FoamAroma, available through Barista Pro Shop, to show you how their patented lid design replicates the café experience regardless of where a customer enjoys their coffee.
The large, triangular opening in the FoamAroma lid allows foam—the best part of any milk-based drink—to come through in every sip. No longer is all the good stuff left to be awkwardly scooped from the bottom of the cup—or retrieved by vigorously shaking the inverted vessel. . . always risky, never classy.
The shape of the FoamAroma lid is designed to enhance coffee on the go. The depression in the lid’s top allows your customers to enjoy their coffee without tilting their head all the way back. (It’s basically a safety feature if you’re drinking coffee while driving.)
In a side-by-side comparison, we found the FoamAroma lid makes a huge difference. We compared it to the ubiquitous Solo lid (shout out to Seven Virtues Coffee Roasters for letting us take over a table for an hour!) and were genuinely surprised at the difference.
Overall, the FoamAroma lid makes the experience of drinking from a plastic cup more enjoyable and closer to the ceramic experience. The mouth of the FoamAroma lid is wider and closer to the lip of the cup, allowing you to better gauge beverage temperature, and mitigating that half second of fear when you sip a hot coffee for the first time.
The large hole in the center of the lid makes a hint of your latte art visible, but, more importantly, it lets you smell your coffee as you drink it. Less plastic means less plastic smell interfering with the taste and aroma of your coffee. It seems obvious, but the difference is remarkable—we didn’t realize how much we were missing with regular lids. Café owners, if you’re looking to step up your to-go game, FoamAroma can help. These innovative lids turn coffee to go into a sensory experience.
Find FoamAroma lids through Barista Pro Shop.
